


Lights Out

by Bunnylope



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, sora is afraid of the dark oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 01:28:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10232639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bunnylope/pseuds/Bunnylope
Summary: "Sora-- Are you afraid of the dARK?"No.He was petrified.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Natsusora fic I love them so much KILL ME i wanted to play off Sora's fear of the dark and Natsume being weak

Being in Yumenosaki at night always had an eerie, empty aspect to it, practically like ghosts roamed the halls. Nobody expects striding down the vacant hallway to echo as much as it does. The sounds of their own footsteps bouncing off the walls is more unsettling than not.

Due to an upcoming DreamFes the units performing are required to decorate their practice rooms. This could be for pictures or the touring public, it was not specified. Despite the specifics, the school has been open for the students later than usual so that they have time to decorate and prep.

Most students and idols have left the school for the night since a thunderstorm is supposed to hit within the next few hours. Natsume wasn’t concerned with the weather, though. They had a job to do, in, out, done. That’s that. It wasn’t of any concern to them.

Tsumugi was on decorating duty during his free period so that meant Natsume and Sora have to take the evening shift. The unit leader gave Sora a bunch of tacky streamers and, much to Sora’s delight, told him to go all out. Natsume on the other hand is still cutting out delicate shapes to hang off of the ceiling.

The first year’s musical humming filled the practice room with life as they both toiled endlessly with their decorations. Thankfully there wasn’t much left to do besides the finishing touches and then they would be ready for… Whatever Anzu had planned. She said she would explain once everyone was done, which was never ever a good idea. Everybody asked questions but she was hardheaded on this one.

“Master, where do you want the stars?~” Sora piped up while grabbing some of the colorful ornate stars Natsume already cut out. Without looking up from his work, he gestured to the empty chalkboard.

“Leave some spaCE in the middle so we can write sometHING. Whoever comes here needs to be greeted, after aLL,” he instructed in a voice much softer than his usual one. His voice always came out softer, more gentle when he was referring to Sora. That was a luxury reserved to just him and him alone. Ask him why he acted that way and you probably won’t get a straight answer.

That pun is only slightly intended.  

Sora obliged with a bright grin as he stole a roll of tape from the table and hopped over to the chalkboard making diagrams in his mind about where he wanted to place the stars. Natsume tore his glance away from the paper he was cutting over to the energetic boy who practically made the entire room light up with his brilliance. It was always tough to not admire everything about Sora. He always acted as a beacon of hope to everyone around him, which was so much more magical than anything Natsume could have done with all of his years of practice and study. Sora Harukawa is truly a miracle of a magician and it was really no wonder that he repeatedly caught Natsume’s eye.

A series of giggles reminiscent of bells erupted from Sora as he started taping the stars to the chalkboard. As the boy turned back to face his unit leader Natsume moved his glance back to his work which he made absolutely no progress on. That was his fault since he chose to focus on... a different star instead.

“What is it, sORA?”

The giggles subsided as he grinned again, expression bright. “HoHo~ These stars are all of our colors~!” afterwards he held up three stars: one yellow, one red, and one blue. “This one is for Sora, thiiiis one is for you Master, and this one is for Senpai~ Sora thought this was a super cute idea.”

Natsume had to let out a little laugh at that. Sora only just noticed the color motif, he, the one who perceives emotions through colors? “You really are a handFUL,” muttered Natsume while shaking his head at him, resulting in Sora pouting a bit. “Aren’t you the choSEN one when it comes to deciphering coloRS?” He always enjoyed gently teasing Sora. His reactions were always a precious sight to see.  

“Well, yeah, but Sora thought you would have chosen to focus on yellow and green like on our outfits for Switch! That’s what the colors for the rest of the room are~” He was right on that one. The streamers alternated a sparkly yellow and green along with the ceiling decorations that slowly waved at them from high above. “Sora just thinks that this is a cute personal touch, HuHu~”

He nodded in response and was about to respond with another statement when a sharp clap of thunder both disrupted their trains of thought. The rattling noise was followed with the sound of rain pouring and pattering sound against the roof and the window of their practice room, which was now shrouded in the darkness of the angry thunderheads. They both looked out the window with uncertainty if they should continue with their business or wait it out.

They weren’t the only students in the building setting up so a little weather shouldn’t be much of a bother. They always have umbrellas when they leave, anyway. Natsume and Sora shared a glance and both went back to what they were doing which went on for a few minutes until Sora broke the silence.

“Master, are you afraid of anything?”

The question caught Natsume off guard since he was expecting something about the decorations again. It was a pretty loaded and out of the blue question, too-- he wasn’t too sure how to even reply to it.

He mulled over his options and spoke. “A few things do make me afrAID. Is there any reason why you asked the questION?” This was met with Sora shrugging halfheartedly as he turned over a red star in his hands a few times. It was tough for Sora to decipher his unit leader’s color right now for some reason.  

“HoHo, no reason, Sora was just curious.”

Natsume highly doubted that question had no underlying motive to it but he had nothing to judge him otherwise. A few seconds of silence, excluding the sounds of rain falling outside the school, hung between them. Finally he composed his answer.

“Some things that I am afraid of I can’t tell even you, Sora, which you could have assUMED. To satisfy your questION, I am afraid of losing my loved ones, drowning, and--” he was cut off by a blinding flash of light followed instantaneously by a slamming barrage of thunder. Sora jumped at the noise and eeped with wide eyes.

If it were anyone else who yelled Natsume would have laughed at them for being afraid of something as nonthreatening as thunder. The blonde boy looked embarrassed and ashamed for being spooked by the storm and Natsume felt the need to comfort him but his body stayed frozen and glued to the seat.

_Don’t worry, darling, it’s just noise. I won’t let it hurt you._

He cursed himself for being too horribly hesitant to say it. Of course he’s had dumb crushes in the past that last a week tops but _dear God_ none were ever like this. Every single time he looked at Sora with his soft blonde hair and his pretty blue eyes his heart felt like it was being squeezed. An exasperated sigh hissed out through his teeth. Why couldn’t he be like everyone else? Why couldn’t Natsume detest him? Why did he have to have a silly crush on him like he was some type of lovestruck schoolgirl?

It didn’t show any signs of letting up outside. He could distract himself by going down the hall to ask Hokuto if they were planning on leaving early because of the weather, but once again he was glued to the seat. An attempt was made to focus on the sound of the rain instead of Sora’s precious pondering face as he went back to placing the stars on the blackboard but it only worked for two seconds.

Due to Natsume being focused on trying to figure out his feelings, which he usually avoids like the plague, he didn’t notice when the lights flickered. He finally noticed when the power did go out, however.

Thanks to the storm the school was enveloped in a blanket of darkness. Natsume just didn’t care at this point, the storm was going to blow over eventually, they’ll all get out alive, it’ll be fine. Hopefully.

“It’s just a power outage, it’ll be back in a bIT,” he mentioned in a bored tone. Sora was uncharacteristically silent. Since there was no light it would take a few more minutes for his eyes to adjust, but Sora stood in his spot, rigid and petrified. “...Sora, are you alriGHT?”

He didn’t get a solid answer from him. After a few seconds, the only sounds that could be heard was the pounding of rain and gentle sobs coming from a certain first year. The last thing he wanted was for Natsume to know that he was crying. Sora didn’t want him to think that he was more of baby than he already thought he was.

Sora is crying because of a stupid power outage so of course he’s a baby, right? Just like how he jumped at the thunder, right?

Natsume stood up the moment he heard Sora’s soft sobs. He put a hand on Sora’s shoulder and spoke to him in that soft voice of his. “Sora, what’s wrong?”

Both of their eyes started adjusting to the dark so Natsume saw Sora shake his head defiantly as he wiped his eyes with his sweatshirt sleeve. He sniffled a bit and avoided Natsume’s gaze like the plague. “It’s nothing,” he choked out.

“Will you please tell me?” asked Natsume quietly, his heart breaking seeing Sora like this. “Sora-- Are you afraid of the dARK?”

No. He was petrified.

His lip quivered and he felt horrible for acting like this and taking up Natsume’s time and attention. The sound of the rain and thunder was numbing to the both of them. He mumbled it at first, inaudibly. They both knew that Natsume couldn’t hear it. He replied with a hm? And Sora took a trembling sigh and muttered “Yes-- Sora is afraid of the dark.”

Whenever he admitted it to someone he felt ashamed. He always remembers how he used to go to sleepovers and ask to go home early instead of asking them to keep a light on. _Baby._ The one time when he did ask to keep a light on they made fun of him.

He prayed that Natsume didn’t make fun of him.

Sora didn’t know what he expected but the feeling of Natsume’s arms around him was not one of the options he thought of. His embrace was warm and comforting and Sora practically melted into his touch immediately, letting out his weak sobs into his shoulder.

“Nothing in the dark will hurt you while I’m heRE.” The only thing Sora could see were the colors of Natsume’s voice which flashed a plush lavender with a splash of deep red in the middle. He always had a bad habit of coming up with new colors for Sora to decipher so he was always tough to read for him. This time, however, Sora knew exactly what he was feeling.

It was the color of adoration.

Thunder clapped again which caused Sora to yelp and continue with the tears that just stopped. Natsume shushed him gently and tangled his hand in Sora’s hair, stroking it in an attempt to comfort him. It hurt him to see him so broken up over this storm.

An idea struck him before he knew it, though.

“Sit down, Sora, there’s something I need to dO,” he says softly while breaking the hug. Sora trembled while sitting down on the ground, hugging his knees and burying his face to escape the chasm of darkness that was the Switch practice room. Natsume rummaged through his bag a bit before pulling out a small drawstring pouch. Blindly sifting through the pouch he pulled out multiple tiny faceted crystals in a multitude of colors. Normally he used his magic for emergencies or when he wanted to show off-- this counted as a little bit of both.

He sat across from Sora and muttered “Hold out your hand for mE,” as he cupped his outstretched hand he put a few of the crystals in his palm. He rolled them around in his hand with a puzzled expression on his face. They felt cold and hollow.

“Master, what are you--” he started.

Natsume let out a brief exhale while concentrating on what he was trying to do. This is hardly comparable to the typical magic he does and practices on-- this is basic magic that he was planning on teaching Sora a few days from now. He figured that now is as good of a time as ever.

As Natsume snapped his fingers the crystals in Sora’s palm emitted a warm and gentle glow as they floated into the air and surrounded the two of them in soft, colorful, illuminated light. The crystals painted the room with a glow of a million different colors. Sora gazed up at them with a look of amazement which was one he always got when Natsume did magic for him. The lights reflected and danced in his big sky blue eyes, looking like a kid in a candy store.

It was so reassuring to see that a miracle such as Sora got his brilliant smile back. He wiped his eyes once again, wiping away the remains of the anxiety he experienced in the dark. His eyes met with Natsume’s, who was looking at him as if he was the most gorgeous boy in the world.

He laughed a bit when he saw Natsume’s expression. “HiHi~ What is it?”

“You look very beautifUL.” It took him half a second to reply. He doesn’t know where he got the confidence to say that but it must have been the leftover magic talking.

Sora put a hand over his mouth to hide his dropped jaw. The color swirling around Natsume was practically completely shrouded in a deep crimson red. “Master--”

The moment was slow and both of their minds were swirling with Natsume’s newly made magic. “Sora, do you remeMBER how before the power outage you asked me what my fears weRE?” he asked in a soft voice, looking up towards his magic lights. He nodded a bit in reply, admiring how pretty Natsume was in the rainbow light. His honey eyes reflected so many beautiful colors that Sora practically had stars in his eyes when he was looking at him. “One of my biggest fears is telling you how much I love yOU.”

The jewels illuminated brighter when he confessed. The lights were powerful enough to bounce off the walls and dance in the air. Sora had absolutely no idea how to process this information.

“Y-You love Sora back?” he stuttered out quietly.

He nodded, feeling like the weight of the world was finally off his shoulders. Reaching out and holding Sora’s hands he starts “You are one of the most brilliaNTLY shining human beings I’ve ever had the privilege of knowING.” He pauses for a few seconds, rubs his thumbs on Sora’s hands, and continues with “Your mere existence is a miraCLE.”

Sora let out a wonderful laugh, his beautiful laugh that sounds like bells. “HeHe~ You really are a handful, aren’t you Master~” With that he brings their intertwined hands to his lips and presses a kiss into the top of Natsume’s hand.

The lights in Yumenosaki flicked back on which caused Natsume’s focus on the crystals to break, burning them out and letting them fall to the ground with a series of dings. Sora blinked at the newfound light and felt Natsume pulling him up off the ground.

“Did you want me to take you home after thAT?” he asked while pocketing the gems. Sora looked around and outside at the rain, which was now letting up.

He shifted his weight nervously, hesitating a bit. “Not before Sora does this~” and before Natsume could ask what he meant by that Sora cupped his face and stood on the tip of his toes to press a soft kiss onto his lips. Natsume slowly leaned in and pulled him closer by pressing a hand to the small of his back. The kiss was soft and passionate and absolutely everything they both thought it would be.

After pulling away Sora let out a soft “HuHu~” and Natsume hummed a bit as he grabbed his bag and led Sora out, hand in hand through the empty, echoing hallway.


End file.
